In visual obstacle detection field, an obstacle generally refers to a solid object above ground plane which has vertical features.
So far, there are two main solutions for monocular vision-based obstacle segmentation: one is feature-based segmentation algorithm, and the other is movement-based segmentation algorithm. The feature-based obstacle segmentation method, since typically utilizing features of the obstacle to proceed a segmentation, in which case it is required to know the features of the obstacle to be segmented in advance, is only adapted to segment particular types of obstacles, for example, segment a vehicle according to the features such as the shadow under the vehicle or lamps of the vehicle, segment a pedestrian by symmetry and color characters, etc. Movement-based obstacle segmentation method is adapted to segment an obstacle only when a multi-frame image is needed as an input. Therefore, the application of the movement-based segmentation algorithm is limited.